When you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike. Powerful people impress and intimidate by saying less. The more you say, the more likely you are to say something foolish.

The key to power, then, is the ability to judge who is best able to further your interests in all situations. Keep friends for friendship, but work with the skilled and competent.

All masters want to appear more brilliant than other people.

Many a serious thinker has been produced in prisons, where we have nothing to do but think.

It's funny how it reads like a Kubrick-inspired moment, a filmmaker controlling one's mise en scène. What it truly is is a documentary moment.

Everything changes. This is the key to feeling powerful, but also to being creative in the world.

Twere sin to stain fair Venus' courts with blood